Jodie Comer has been reflecting on rage, questioning why women conceal this emotion and how it shapes their identities. In her latest projects and personal introspection, she explores the unique contours of suppressed anger and emotional empowerment, challenging herself and her audiences to confront difficult feelings in a world often demanding silence and composure, especially from women.
The Struggle to Find and Express Rage
Recently, Comer has found herself preoccupied with the concept of rage—not in the abstract, but as a lived, often-buried experience. In the midst of a dark, taxidermy-filled Austrian restaurant in London, she admits,
“I’ve always felt as if rage is something that I struggle to conjure up,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. She is candid about how her anger switches quickly to sorrow:
“I’ve realised my own [rage] just immediately goes to a very emotional place – my anger can so quickly go to tears. I think I swallow it as well,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. For Comer, this suppression is not unique to her but resonates across the lives of many women:
“I think, as women, we suppress it and that’s probably why I have trouble accessing it – I’ve done that so much that it feels kind of foreign, like I’m not quite sure where to pull it from.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
These reflections align with the roles she’s been taking, particularly in the upcoming horror sequel 28 Years Later, where a virus named “rage” devastates the nation. In this world, rage becomes death—a metaphor that echoes Comer’s own journey of navigating intense emotions in life and art.
Lessons from Controlled Silence
Comer shares a pivotal moment from an acting workshop:
“There was just an energy in the way he was leading the workshop that made us all feel a little uncomfortable,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. The discomfort became a collective silence, prolonged before anyone voiced dissent:
“We were all looking at each other as if to say, This doesn’t feel quite right, [but] it probably got to 15 minutes too long before someone said, ‘You know what, why don’t we leave this here?’ We all felt like we’d muted ourselves. We were stunned by it,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. The takeaway, Comer says, was about the danger of self-silencing:
“It’s suppression. Can I? Should I? Those little moments that show up where I think, Wow, I let myself down.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. Yet, this realization has become a motivation:
“I’m just trying to honour myself a little bit more.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
Music and Self-Esteem as Emotional Touchstones
Connecting her feelings to culture, Comer references a line from a Self Esteem song that haunts her:
“If I’m so empowered, why am I such a coward?”
—Rebecca Lucy Taylor, Musician. This lyric mirrors her struggle between outward confidence and internal timidity, sparking ongoing self-examination.
Transformation Through Acting Challenging Roles
Unlike the timidness she sometimes feels, Comer’s on-screen presence is anything but. As the lethal Russian assassin in Killing Eve, the devoted caregiver in Help, and the new mother in a deluged world in The End We Start From, Comer has repeatedly taken on roles defined by resilience and complexity. She is drawn to parts far from her daily reality, believing,
“I just think it would be so freeing,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. She pursues a level of transformation akin to Colin Farrell‘s work in The Penguin.
Her approach to acting is deeply introspective:
“I don’t think I would have ever said that years ago,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. Yet, every part demands reflective inquiry:
“[But] when you come to a role, you have to be very reflective and introspective. How do I relate to this? Do I relate to this? Am I judgmental of this person? Why am I judgmental? You’re constantly asking questions and having to be curious. So I think, naturally, when you’re asking those questions, and then embodying that on set, you’re gonna figure some stuff out – or change, in some way.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
Prima Facie: An Emotional Pinnacle
Prima Facie stands as a defining project for Comer. Playing Tessa, a barrister-turned-victim, she navigated the depths of legal trauma and survivorhood, alone on stage for an hour and forty minutes without a break, winning both the Olivier and Tony awards for this role. The honesty of her performance required full emotional immersion:
“There was one particular night, halfway through,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. She explains the cost, especially in the moments after the play’s most disturbing scene.
“I had like a minute and a half to calm myself down before coming back on, and I’d gone so far I was struggling to pull myself back. That was like, Oh, OK –”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. This realization proved revelatory:
“It felt like a bit of a revelation. I was interested in how much I had just convinced myself that I was in that position.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
Stage work, with its relentless energy, amplifies this emotional intensity:
“With stage, it’s so kinetic and everything’s so alive, and your adrenaline is up,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
Early Experiences of Tapping Deep Emotions
Comer’s connection to emotion stretches back to childhood. Her debut on stage at age 12—a monologue recounting the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster—brought her to unexpected tears:
“I probably didn’t fully understand [at that age] the scale of Hillsborough and the effect that it had on Liverpool as a community,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. Still, she recalls,
“But I remember being so moved by it when I was acting it,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. Her ability to harness such emotion puzzled and impressed her teachers:
“Everyone was like, What? Is she OK? What’s going on? I remember my drama teacher saying, ‘What you have is amazing, but you have to learn to harness it.’”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
Instinct, Resilience, and Navigating Fear
Comer attributes much of her success to instinct rather than conscious choice. Never formally trained at a drama school, she faced rejections before her major breakthrough. Anxiety plagued her before Prima Facie premiered on the West End. The anticipation of opening night brought nightmares, but succeeding in front of an eager audience changed that. Describing the energy before the curtain rose:
“I guess, [it was] just feeling the energy fill the room and realising that everyone’s come here for a great night, but the only thing that can get in the way is you,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. Her techniques for calming nerves relied on immersing herself in music by women artists like Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Alison Goldfrapp, and Florence Welch.
The Transformative Power of Performance
Comer likens acting to a spiritual experience:
“When you get out of your own way, there’s a real presence – it’s a real experience,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. The sensations—positive or harrowing—often leave her awestruck:
“It’s lovely to feel things, just feel like [the emotions] are not being forced, but they’re kind of passing through you. And then to come away from that and go, Wow, what was that? That felt amazing! Or, That felt fucking terrible! – whatever it is,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
“Just like, Wow. What a curious thing.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
The Audience Connection and the Aftermath of Prima Facie
Prima Facie demanded a reckoning not only from Comer but also from her audience, who confronted their own pain and lived experiences. The responses from viewers, particularly women, were overwhelming. People confided in her, revealing traumas they had never shared. Comer says,
“No, not at all, because I think I understand how difficult that even is to say out loud,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. She continues,
“But it’s so beautiful, and it’s so rare, for someone to look you in the eyes and share something of themselves. And there’s so much that isn’t said, but even in just the briefest of moments, it’s like, That was me, or, I feel that.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
The role positioned Comer as an unexpected figurehead for spurring conversation and healing. Through projects like working with the charity Everyone’s Invited, which supports survivors by collecting their stories anonymously, she became a source of solace and validation. She remarks on the hidden depths people share:
“I guess what probably surprised me the most was actually how – even though we think we know each other and we have shared experiences – there is still so much that we keep from each other,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
Gendered Silences and Difficult Conversations
Although women frequently reached out to share their stories, Comer notes a lack of engagement from men.
“I don’t think I’ve had a deep, meaningful conversation with many men about the play, actually,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. She recounts a positive exception,
“I do know there was a male police officer that came in one night, and he wrote in to the production. He was kind of saying, This is me – I see myself, and I recognise the kind of work that needs to be done as a police officer.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. Still, the prevailing silence speaks volumes. Comer speculates,
“I imagine it’s quite… confronting. I don’t know. Maybe also, when they read what it’s about, they think, Well, that’s not something that’s directed at me. I imagine, for a man, it will force them to look back at their own behaviour, which I imagine would be – or could be – potentially very uncomfortable. But it shouldn’t just be…[Sexual assault] isn’t ‘a woman’s issue’. You know what I mean?”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
Role Selection Guided by Instinct and Social Relevance
Comer acknowledges that she may be unconsciously drawn to roles dealing with political and social injustices, whether sexual assault in The Last Duel or pandemic response in Help. The thread running through her choices is resilience and an appetite for challenging the status quo, which may trace back to her upbringing in Liverpool, a city marked by struggle for recognition after the Hillsborough disaster. Reflecting on her choices, she admits,
“There’s probably a very quiet resilience within myself that maybe I subconsciously relate to, but I can’t say it’s been a conscious choice,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
“So much of what I choose is from instinct.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
Sometimes the imperative to take a role is undeniable:
“If you picture someone else doing it and it makes you angry, you need to do it.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
Fulfillment by Embracing Emotional Depth
The 2021 film Free Guy, starring Ryan Reynolds, proved a moment of clarity for Comer. While she enjoyed the supportive atmosphere, she missed the emotional challenge.
“It was my first film and I had the most amazing experience on that job – they were just the most gentle, inclusive, supportive people, and it was incredibly fun… But I realised, when I was coming home, Ah, there’s something I’m not feeling. I feel like I’m not stretching. Or not discovering. And I realised that it was the emotional part of it. I wasn’t exercising [that] part of myself.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. Fulfillment comes when she is stretched to her limits; when a script fails to excite this instinct, she has no desire to pursue it:
“I realised that’s actually where I get my fulfilment – trying to find those places. If the instincts aren’t there, if I’m not excited by it, then I just don’t want to go near it because then I’m pulling from an artificial place. It feels almost dishonest with myself.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
The Quest for Truth in Portraying Human Experience
Despite her public image and ascending celebrity status, Comer remains motivated by integrity in storytelling rather than seeking the spotlight. After wrapping a new project, The Death of Robin Hood with Hugh Jackman, she is preparing to revisit Prima Facie on a UK and Ireland tour. Between professional milestones, Comer returns to the ordinary comforts of her life—rest, care for her labradoodle, homemade juices, and watching films such as Mike Leigh’s Naked, which reignited her passion for raw, truthful narratives:
“I want to do something like this, and tell these kinds of stories!”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
“It doesn’t have to be big and flashy, as long as it’s true and raw.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
Revisiting Rage, Catharsis, and the Drive for Connection
The question of rage continues to surface for Comer—how it shapes her and her work. For her 30th birthday, she found catharsis at a Self Esteem concert:
“I’ve seen someone describe [her shows] as like being at church – it’s a place of catharsis and worship,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor. The event was more than celebration; there was “so much anger,”—Jodie Comer, Actor, suggesting communal release was as powerful as collective joy. It is no coincidence that Self Esteem’s music provided the emotional undercurrent for Prima Facie.
Ruminating on her own feelings of empowerment and vulnerability, Comer references the same persistent lyric:
“’If I’m so empowered, why am I such a coward?’”
—Rebecca Lucy Taylor, Musician. She admits to experiencing moments of self-abandonment, despite championing strength through her work. These contradictions, she says,
“that’s also what it is to be human.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
The Animal Instinct Beneath Fear and Anger
While filming The End We Start From, Comer doubted her own capacity for maternal ferocity, believing she’d be overwhelmed in a crisis. Director Mahalia Belo insisted otherwise—pointing to the ability of animal instinct to emerge in life-or-death scenarios. For Comer, rage is more than explosive anger; it’s a force that is dangerous rather than vulnerable:
“I think I mean an anger that isn’t vulnerable,”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
“One that actually feels quite dangerous.”
—Jodie Comer, Actor.
New Directions and Ongoing Impact
Jodie Comer’s recent and upcoming roles have positioned her as a figurehead for channeling suppressed emotion into performances of rare power. Her engagement with sensitive, socially resonant material—from the trauma-laden solos of Prima Facie to stories of institutional crisis in Help—invites audiences to examine their own experiences of shame, silence, and survival.
Through these roles and her reflections outside the spotlight, Comer cements herself as a storyteller seeking raw truth over spectacle, challenging audiences and herself alike to face emotions long buried beneath the surface of everyday life. The impact of her work—evident in bags of letters and transformative encounters—serves as a catharsis for herself, her collaborators, and the many who see themselves mirrored on stage and screen.
